Library No. ISBN 0 9593669 03

Wally Muller built Coralita which was launched in 1969. Originally it was intended as a cruise boat working the islands and reefs offshore on the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.   The vessel, while being an excellent open sea craft was prone to ‘rocking wildly’ at anchor. Tourists were often seasick.  Wally Muller then turned to fishing and  diving charters.  Through his friendship with Ron Taylor and John Harding (then the founding editor of FATHOM) he was able to attract local and overseas scuba divers, especially from USA.  Hollywood producers seeking shark scenes obtained these in The Coral Sea.  Wally returned to Saumarez Reef several  times and found a magnificent bommie in 100 feet of water that rose to 30 feet under the surface.  Modestly named “Wal’s Bommie” it was for a short time one of the best scuba dive locations known.  Today the location would be ‘lost’. Although Wally Muller chartered and named many reefs in The Swain Reefs, only one retains one of his original names “Riversong Cay”.

We encountered wild Grey Reef sharks galore.  They even chewed on the diving platform.  It was unique action at the time.  Later we would realize that sharks elsewhere eventually settle down and adopt a different behavior.

At locations where no divers have been before you should expect territorial aggressive behavior.

Probably rare today and certainly not at dive resorts where sharks are virtually ‘trained’ and behave.

Film of those original encounters might be a surprise to many today.

Up top: Dr Don Ahern, JM Harding, Roy Bisson, Dr Colin Friendship, Liz Hen.

On the duckboard: John H Harding (with 16mm camera) , shark wrangler Dr Richard Ibara, Allan Murayama from Hawaii.

Valerie and Ron Taylor took this picture from their dinghy nearby.

Their 16mm film from the expedition featured (Taylor’s Innerspace) a search for the rare sea shell, a volute known to be found only here and worth thousands of dollars at the time.

However it was the shark action which proved more entertaining.

Shark wrangler and marine biologist, Richard Ibara used fish baits to attract sharks into the shallows.

In one scene we see where he grabs a live Grey Reef shark by the tail (when the shark had it’s mouth firmly secured to a fish) and hauled the shark onto a reef.

It remained there for a few moments, just long enough for this unusual film sequence to be recorded.  Kids seeing it in the cinemas.

Picture from “Australian Seafari” – a family film show in cinema’s which included The Chesterfield Reef Expedition.

The late Alby Ziebell, last owner-captain of Coralita

Hitchhiker was a temporary solution for Alby while a new boat, larger than Coralita was being built especially.  The outcome was not good.  The builder filed for bankruptcy and everything was lost.  A tragedy in many ways.

Alby was an excellent international charter boat skipper and diver.  His underwater photography in a short time equaled or surpassed the best.

Years of professional abalone diving in Tasmania gave him an edge in fine tuning and perfecting his business, with the help of wife Irene who ran the office.  A skilled diplomat for divers.

A plan to expand diving charter horizons to New Guinea waters was the beginning of the end…..

Coralita sank in Cairns Harbour just days before the first scheduled departure.  Nobody was injured.

August 11, 2010   Coralita was purchased as a wreck by Cocky Watkins of Cardwell for the price of one thousand dollars at auction, later temporarily renamed Alita then sold and renamed Bell Cay.

News item today indicates the vessel has come to grief in The Swain Reefs (250 km offshore) with over 20 people aboard.  All have been rescued after treading water for some time.

27 February 2011. Bell Cay is said (Ref. Alexander Muller, professional fisherman)  to have broken up and washed ashore in the Mackay area of the Queensland coast.

White blotches on plate coral are curious and alarming.   This picture is from the last roll of underwater film exposed by this late famous charter boat skipper and owner of Coralita.   It was discovered in his motor drive Nikon camera still in it’s marine housing.

We found the sleeping giant stingray ‘nest’ alongside the Yongala shipwreck. I carried a Nikonos 4a (28mm lens) and a Eumig Nautica Super8.  Both light and easy to use but far from what professionals usually carry.  The movie sequence appears in my video “Reef Safari”, (1984) which is no longer in release.

In between movie sequences a few stills were obtained. The sleeping stingray shot has since had color shift on the original transparency, so it looks best as B&W today.  Sharpness has been retained.

Dianne Widdowson approached to within a borderline safe distance from these  large and dangerous rays.   They would not ‘attack’ of course – unless you did some foolish stunt – such as trying to touch one.  These could be termed ‘wild’ as there was no resort-type fish feeding going on.

It was interesting to note how the rays sleep or ‘rest’ – wingtips touching. Any movement by one ray would signal the next and the next and so on.  Tiger sharks would be their main enemy I imagine.

The slight raising of a tail is to be taken as a warning.

Earlier in the dive several large Cobia (Black Kingfish) had been near the rays while also nearby and under the stern of Yongala, three giant Queensland groper – possibly 100 to 150kg each.  They didn’t stay around too long either.

The estimated one knot of strong current had brought very clear water but provided too strong for the overseas guests to swim against.   None got to see the groper or stingray as we had anchored near the other end of the wreck.

Many thought the current stronger than one knot.

Details of the Yongala wreck are elsewhere on the net as it is (or was) one of the famous shipwreck dives of the world.  Close to a city and in shallow water surrounded by a sea of sand making the wreck an underwater oasis.

JHH

Coralita was returning to her home port at Cairns after a successful 10 day dive trip.  There was just time for one last dive.  It was either a gamble or a mistake by our captain.  He was shocked that he’d dropped us on such a poor (dead) reef.

My notes, just found, record the location as Irene Reef, near Ribbon Reef No.2 which is north of Cairns, Queensland.

A bit of confusion here, the skipper’s wife is also called ‘Irene’.  Therefore the official name today may be something else.

To my eyes this is an example of silt smothering a reef.

Maybe it was attacked by CoT starfish beforehand?

The point of publishing these pictures is twofold.

Firstly it’s a record of a reef in trouble – 1991.

Point Two, it’s an example  not normally seen published in diver or travel magazine.  In other words,  an education to help the reader appreciate a good coral reef when they see one.

Not every Great Barrier Reef is as poor as this one, but some are and some are worse.

Game fishing skipper Peter Bristow knows this region well:

“Irene is directly inside Lena, the small reef south of #1 Ribbon.  Irene and Lena are on the north side of Cruiser pass. Lena is on the edge and forms the outside northern corner of the pass.  The water there is always dirty for some reason.  Directly inshore you have the Bloomfield River and Cape Tribulation to the south.  This is a high rainfall area and I think the dirty water and river silt would contribute to the state of the reef you are referring to.  The push from the SE trade keeps the dirty water to the north side of the pass.  Cruiser Pass is the best ‘Red’ fishing I know of right there close to Irene.  They most likely prefer the dirty water”.

See the Crown of Thorns story in Fathom 5

From last roll of film in one of (the late)  Albie Ziebell’s  camera’s

We’ve circled a section of coral and then made enlargements.  In truth the whole piece of platform coral was in trouble.  It requires a trained-eye to ID dead coral in a situation like this.  Is the culprit crown-of-thorns starfish?  Probably not.   Coral bleaching?  Perhaps.   A photo really requires an eye-witness report to be sure.

Location is thought to be on the top of one of the ten Ribbon Reefs, north of Cairns, Queensland.

Albie Ziebel was the 2nd owner and captain of Coralita, after Wally Muller.  Albie passed away soon after this final roll of film was exposed.

We found it unprocessed and inside one of his fine underwater camera’s.

Huge Coral Cod at The Cod Hole (1991)

An edited version of Coralita’s brochure (1986)

Coralita was launched in1969, began catering for divers and fishermen in 1970 and then exclusively for divers.  Before being sold to 2nd owner (Alby Ziebell) Wally Muller did adventurous charters for oil companies to destinations still high risk today.

Coralita ventured further up the Fly River in Papua New Guinea than was considered safe.  Tidal bores being the risk that had stranded previous boats.

Wally’s son, Roy Muller was bumped underwater by a saltwater crocodile in near zero visibility while placing electronic measuring equipment underwater in the Fly River.

Another charter took Coralita into pirate-infested waters of the Celebes.

New  owner Albie Ziebell was an experienced abalone diver who had worked southern Tasmanian waters and wanted a new change.

Coralita’s home port was moved from Yeppoon to Cairns at a time when that city was just beginning to attract international visitors.

All went well until 1991.  On the brink of a departure to begin diving charters in New Guinea, Coralita suffered an explosion in her engine room that sent the boat to the bottom of Cairns harbour.

It was far from an insurance job.

Although there were no immediate casualties the disappointment and stress on Alby was severe. He passed away a few years later; at his well-attended funeral most of his friends, apart from a handful of divers, were rod and reel fishermen.

Alby had once again excelled at a new profession and was doing well when tragedy struck while returning from a northern fishing safari.